


A Life Less Ordinary

by sleepismyfriend



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: F/M, Ficlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-19
Updated: 2010-07-19
Packaged: 2017-10-10 21:50:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/104676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepismyfriend/pseuds/sleepismyfriend
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a gift, to spot the extraordinary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Life Less Ordinary

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Spydurwebb](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Spydurwebb), [Dallas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dallas/gifts).



Gripping the console, the Doctor felt the TARDIS give a good shake before she stopped moving altogether. He moved around the console, checking various things to include his coordinates at least three times to make sure that he had in fact landed instead of remaining weightless and spinning in the void.

He was just going to have to relearn his landings. It wasn't his fault that the TARDIS was supposed to be piloted by half a dozen of his xenophobic brethren. Being exiled on Earth hadn't helped either and in fact had made him a little rusty at the skill of flying solo.

A fact he intended on remedying now that he had his TARDIS and was capable of travelling the cosmos again. Oh, the Time Lords had been using him as a yo-yo all right, and if he wasn't so distrusting of them, he had contemplated giving them a piece of his mind.

Then again, he wasn't going to risk another one of those silly forced regenerations. It wouldn't do to show back up at UNIT and Jo just to have another face for the Brigadier to worry about.

Stepping outside of the TARDIS, he locked the door and turned, smiling at the sight of cars and horns at the end of the alleyway. No doubt from the look of the cars, he was in the earlier half of the 20th century, during or just after the Second World War if he had to guess.

Standing outside of a shop was an ordinary little girl wearing a navy pinafore, white stockings and navy shoes to match. She couldn't be more than six years old, and the Doctor was wondering why she was standing outside by herself when random people were passing by. Where were her parents?

"Hello," he said, staring down at the young girl, whose red pigtails were tied at the ends with nice red bows. "Are you lost?"

"No." The girl shook her head, her tiny lisp apparent. "Are you?"

"No." The Doctor shook his head back, and smiled at the little girl's response. There was a certain air about her that he couldn't quite place, and he was quite certain that this was not where she was meant to be. "I am always precisely where I need to be, at any given time."

"Okay." The girl shrugged her shoulders, and the Doctor studied her for another moment. "I'm not supposed to talk to strangers. My father won't like it."

The Doctor bent down to her level, peering into her eyes and noting the familiarity of them.

"Well, I won't tell him if you won't." He smiled. "My name's the Doctor."

"Like a medical doctor?" She tilted her head.

"That's right." The Doctor nodded. "So, go on, what's your name?"

"Lizzie Shaw." As soon as the name left her lips, the Doctor couldn't help but be delighted on the inside. Liz had never mentioned that she had seen him before, but maybe her memory was a little faded of the event. After all, she was a little girl in this moment.

"It's nice to meet you, Lizzie." A wider gentler smile crossed his lips and he resisted the urge to scoop her up in his arms and whirl her around. No, that would have to wait until he returned to the Brigadier and then found the adult Liz to whirl around. "Now I'm not a stranger."

"My father still won't like it."

"Well, Lizzie, is your father inside the shop?" The Doctor looks up to see the outside sign hanging of the shop above their heads. "Does he know you're standing outside like this?"

"It smells funny in there. I don't like it." Lizzie crinkled her nose, and the Doctor did his best to not laugh and instead take her responses very serious.

Also, abducting a small girl even if he did know her future self into the TARDIS to make sure that she got home safe was not on his list of things to do today. No, he would wait and make sure that no one snatched her away.

"Is that so?" He looked up again at the sign before looking back at her. Humans and their penchant for the odd, not that he could honestly say he blamed them sometimes. "I imagine it does smell rather funny in there. Why don't I keep you company while you wait, hmm? We can chat a bit. Then we can make sure that your father gets you home safe. How does that sound?"

Lizzie nodded her head, and the Doctor was glad. He curled his hand around hers and led her over by the shop window and proceeded to sit down with his legs out in front of him on the stone pavement. Lizzie sat down next to him, careful of her dress and crossing her legs Indian-style as they both watched the cars pass.

"I've never seen a doctor wear this before," Lizzie said, touching the sleeve of his velvet jacket as the Doctor smiled. He was astounded at her innocence and youth, seeing the framework of the woman that he knew she would become. Always asking questions and expecting answers, she really hadn't changed all that much.

"Well, I'm not your average Doctor." He winked, clasping his hands in front of him and Lizzie grinned, her obvious two front teeth missing. It was a smile that the Doctor had seen many times, only to be magnified by the fact that he was talking to someone he wouldn't know for at least twenty-five years in her personal timeline.

"Do you take care of animals then? Like Mr. Perkins down the road?"

"Not exactly. I help people. Not just your average people, although I do try to help everyone equally if they're in trouble. There is something special about helping _extraordinary_ people, Lizzie." He leaned in real close. "You never know what might happen."

"But, how do you know if someone is special or not?"

"Oh, well, you just know. It's a gift." He leaned back up, scratching his nose and clasping his hands back together. "Because if you can pick out the extraordinary people from the ordinary ones? You'll never see the world the same again. True fact, you know."

"Maybe I'll grow up and be a doctor one day."

"Maybe." He tapped her on her nose. "Because I'm sure you'd make a splendid one."

"Elizabeth?" Lizzie heard her full name used as her father came barrelling out of the shop. She stood up and ran towards him before he scooped her up in a tight hug. "Oh, thank god, I thought I had lost you. You were supposed to stay by me."

The Doctor rested one arm on his knee and gave a breath of thanks.

"I'm right here," she said. "The Doctor was keeping me company."

"Is that so? Well, why don't you say goodbye to the nice Doctor and we can go home, hmm? I got the ingredients for dinner." Her father never let go as she manoeuvred her arm to wave at him.

"Bye, Doctor."

"Bye, remember what I said." He tapped his nose and smiled as Lizzie's father carried her off. He waited until she was out of his line of sight before he sighed, turning his attention to what he was going to do now.

After seeing Liz as a little girl, this time period didn't truly pique his interest. He had a rather nostalgic feeling weighing both of his hearts. With that in mind, he got up and strolled back towards the TARDIS.


End file.
